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Step aside Walking Dead – There’s another leading TV show being shot in Georgia now

May 1, 2020

3 min

Barry Joyner

When location scouts for NBC’s new television series “Council of Dads” combed Savannah for a realistic venue to shoot multiple hospital scenes, they knew they had found something special in the Health Professions Academic Building on Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong Campus.


“I set up a visit, came and looked at it and I was floored,” said “Council of Dads” location scout and Armstrong Campus alumnus Anthony Paderewski.

“I couldn’t believe it. Basically, you have a backlot for a TV show here. It was absolutely perfect for what we were looking for. So that being said, I went and I talked to the producers and I got some pictures. When I showed the pictures everyone was blown away.” 


“Council of Dads,” which premiered March 24 and now airs on Thursdays, is based on the book by Savannah native Bruce Feiler, and developed by former “Grey’s Anatomy” showrunners Tony Phelan and Joan Rater, who also serve as executive producers on the series. The story follows Scott Perry, a father of five who, after receiving a cancer diagnosis, asks a group of friends to step in as father figures to his children in the event that he isn’t around to see them grow up. 



“It’s an emotional family drama,” explained “Council of Dads” co-executive producer and producing director Jonathan Brown. “The idea is to try and be as real as possible. And the show is telling the story of a family and what it means to be a family in this day and age. It’s not just blood. The definition of family is growing, broadening with the types of relationships that are now included in a family. This is the story of one of those families that is made up of blood relationships, friendships, adoption and all those different kinds of things.” 


The show filmed almost entirely on location in the Savannah area for five months. Several of the scenes take place in a hospital, and the set has to be believable, multifaceted and offer the right aesthetic for television.


Primarily, the true-to-life setting allows the University to provide exceptional education and training opportunities to help students succeed while addressing the healthcare needs of the region. The Waters College of Health Professions, housed in the Academic Building and Ashmore Hall, is the largest undergraduate health sciences college in the state of Georgia, and the University’s allied healthcare programs represent almost one-fifth of all undergraduate healthcare degrees earned in Georgia. 


“The use of the Health Professions Academic Building is validation that we are training our students for real-world health care settings,” said Barry Joyner Ph.D., dean of the Waters College of Health Professions. “The goal for the building was to simulate a hospital setting, and we have accomplished that.” 


Are you a journalist looking to cover this topic or learn how Georgia and Universities like Georgia Southern are working with film and television industries – the let us help with your stories.


Barry Joyner is the dean of the Waters College of Health Professions at Georgia Southern University and is available to talk about this latest project on campus – simply click on his icon to arrange an interview today. 

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Barry Joyner

Dean and Professor of Exercise Science

Barry Joyner is an expert in physical activity, exercise science, teaching/learning, and outcome assessment.

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